bucking mode) and rely on preamps to fine
tune the high, middle and low frequencies.

There are three types of strings to consider
when thinking about tone. If you’re a fan
of old funk and roots music – think James
Jamerson or Duck Dunn – then you probably
want to play with flatwound strings. These
have less sustain and a stronger fundamental
– the primary note before any overtones
meld with the sound. If you’re into more
modern bass sounds, like Marcus Miller or
Anthony Jackson, then you might consider
roundwound strings. These are brighter, have
more sustain and provide overtones as part
of their sound, making them more suitable
for slap-style playing. A less commonly used
string is the half-wound, which as you might
guess, gives a sound somewhere between
flats and rounds. The brunch crowd was
mixed in terms of personal preferences; my
personal choice is D’Addario roundwounds,
which I find dependable, long lasting and rich
in tone.

What the Bass Brunch Gang Says

When canvassing the bass brunch gang

about tone, the general philosophy was that
the player needs to control his or her sound
as best they can before handing it off to a
soundman or engineer. So now that we’ve
spoken about instruments and strings, let’s
go beyond the bass and talk about cables
and DI boxes.

There has been significant progress made in
cable technology and an important contribution has been made by Planet Waves. Rob
Cunningham, Planet Waves product specialist,
explained these advances. By attaching shielding to the ground on the amplifier side of
the cable and having dual layers of shielding,
Planet Waves has virtually eliminated ground
loops and noise interference, creating a transparent signal that is “direction oriented.” I use
these cables both live and in the studio and
have found them to be first rate. Using what
they call “In = Out” technology – essentially
using low capacitance – they’ve made cables
that transmit the full sonic spectrum. This kind
of transparent transmission is obviously critical
in the ability to control one’s tone.

Bass brunch-ers, Chris Anderson and Paul

Nowinsky (Ricki Lee Jones, Les Paul, Keith
Richards), were quite vociferous about the
use of the Radial JDV direct box. It is what
they call an “honest” DI that will send out to
the front of house soundman or recording
engineer exactly what you’ve given them. My
conversation with Peter Janis, president of
Radial Engineering, shed some light on the
unique qualities of their JDV direct box. It
was explained to me that all DI boxes have
one thing in common – they are constructed
with negative feedback loops that have been
considered an intrinsic part of the design, but
negative feedback loops impede signal flow.
While high-end audio companies like Neve
boast that they’ve created circuitry that’s
“almost free of feedback loops,” Radial’s
JDV box has no feedback loops. It also has
30V internal rail voltage, whereas a typical
DI box has 3V. An average passive bass puts
out about 1V, but an active bass can put out
as much as 10-15V. You can easily see how
the common DI box can be overloaded, thus
diminishing signal flow and consequently,
tone. Having an internal rail voltage of 30V
eliminates all possibilities of overload. The
Radial JDV also has a feature called “drag